NAACP-KKK meeting in Wyo. believed to be a first

John Abarr, left, of the United Klans of America, and Jimmy Simmons, center, president of the NAACP Casper, Wyo., branch, held an unprecedented meeting.

Photo: Alan Rogers, MBR

DENVER - A meeting between the Wyoming chapter of the NAACP and an organizer for the Ku Klux Klan over the weekend is believed to be the first of its kind.

The meeting between Jimmy Simmons, president of the Casper NAACP, and John Abarr, a KKK organizer from Great Falls, Mont., took place at a hotel in Casper, Wyo., under tight security, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the United Klans of America said Tuesday that the meeting is a first.

Abarr said that he met with Simmons on Saturday and ended up filling out an National Association for the Advancement of Colored People membership form so he can get the group's newsletters and some insight into its views. He said he paid the $30 fee to join, plus a $20 donation.

But Abarr said he didn't ask anybody if they would like to join the Ku Klux Klan: "You have to be white to join the Klan."

Simmons asked for the meeting after reports that KKK literature was being distributed in Gillette, about 130 miles north of Casper, and that African-American men were being beaten while out in public with white women.

"It's about opening dialogue with a group that claims they're trying to reform themselves from violence," Simmons said in a telephone interview Tuesday, saying the meeting went well. "They're trying to shed that violent skin, but it seems like they're just changing the packaging."

Abarr said he knows nothing about any beatings or the literature that was distributed in a residential neighborhood in October.

Gillette police Lt. Chuck Deaton said there have been 10 hate or bias crimes reported in the past five years that involved name-calling, none of them assaults on African-Americans. Deaton said any beatings may have happened outside of city limits and were not reported to Gillette police.

The literature said, "save our land and join the Klan," Deaton said. He said police were unable to speak with the "young man" who was distributing the material, and he was chased away.